Kashi Bose Lane's 89th Year Begins: Khuti Puja and Kathamo Puja Set for 9th August
For Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity, one of North Kolkata's oldest and most-loved barowari pujas, that turn arrives officially on Sunday, 9th August 2026, when the committee holds its khuti puja and kathamo puja together, marking the ritual opening of the pandal's 89th year.
Save the Date: Khuti Puja and Kathamo Puja, 9th August
Here's everything confirmed so far, straight from the committee's own announcement:
- Event: Khuti Puja and Kathamo Puja, 89th year
- Date: Sunday, 9th August 2026
- Time: 9:00 AM onward
- Venue: Kashi Bose Lane KIT Park, Bidhan Sarani, Kolkata
- Occasion: Formal ritual start of the Durga idol's structural build for the 2026 season
- Open to: Everyone — the committee's invitation reads সকলকে জানাই সাদর আমন্ত্রণ, "a warm invitation to all"
No ticketing, no separate guest list — just a neighbourhood being asked, plainly, to come and witness the year begin.
What Khuti Puja and Kathamo Puja Actually Mean
If you're new to how Kolkata's community pujas work, these two rituals, usually held on the same morning, are worth understanding properly rather than just noting as a date on a calendar.
Khuti puja is the ceremony that sanctifies the ground itself. A single bamboo pole — the khuti — is worshipped and then driven into the earth at the exact spot where the pandal or the idol will eventually stand. It's a small ritual with a big meaning: everything that follows over the next two months, from bamboo scaffolding to the final clay finishing on the goddess's face, is considered to begin from this one pole.
Kathamo puja follows soon after, sometimes the same day. The kathamo is the skeletal frame — bamboo and straw lashed together in the rough shape of the goddess — that artisans will later build clay and detail over. Worshipping the kathamo before a single handful of clay touches it is an old Bengali tradition, treating the bare frame itself as sacred rather than waiting until the idol looks finished to invoke that reverence. For a club like Kashi Bose Lane, doing both rituals on one morning is a way of saying the year's work has formally, ceremonially started — everything from here is craft in service of something already blessed.
From 1937 to Now: The Story of One of North Kolkata's Oldest Barowari Pujas
Kashi Bose Lane's puja goes back to 1937, making it one of the earliest community — or "barowari" — Durga Pujas in North Kolkata, from an era when most Durga Puja celebrations in the city were still confined to the courtyards of wealthy zamindar families. A group of local youths and residents, several of them connected to the freedom movement, came together to start the puja on what was then open ground at Kashi Bose Lane, in the park later known as Sudhir Mukherjee Udyan and now familiar to most Kolkatans simply as Kashi Bose Lane KIT Park.
The puja wasn't without interruptions. During the Second World War, in 1939, celebrations had to be scaled back for a year because of the socio-economic pressures of the time. But the committee picked things back up, and in the decades since, Kashi Bose Lane has grown into a fixture of the North Kolkata puja map — situated conveniently near the Scottish Church Collegiate School, a short walk from both Girish Park and Sovabazar Sutanuti metro stations, and instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever tried to navigate Hatibagan during puja week.
The Puja Kolkata Waits For: Chappanna Bhog and a Legacy of Firsts
What sets Kashi Bose Lane apart from many of its contemporaries isn't just its age — it's what the committee has consistently pioneered.
Every year, from Shashti through Nabami, the puja distributes bhog to every visitor who walks in, no exceptions made. On Maha Nabami, that tradition scales up dramatically into the Chappanna Bhog Utsav — literally, "the festival of fifty-six offerings" — where fifty-six separate dishes are prepared and offered, a feat of community kitchen logistics that draws its own crowd independent of the pandal itself. On peak days, the committee has recorded footfall touching close to a lakh of visitors in a single day, numbers that put it firmly among Kolkata's most-visited community pujas.
The club also has a reputation for artistic risk-taking well before "concept pandals" became the citywide norm. In 2002, for its 65th year, Kashi Bose Lane built what's remembered as one of Kolkata's first pandals crafted almost entirely from paddy-plant materials. In 2011, its 74th year, the theme leaned into stone-textured design work that got the whole neighbourhood talking. More recently, for its 88th year in 2025, the pandal paid tribute to the celebrated Bengali author Leela Majumdar through a theme called "Pakdandi" — the winding path — borrowed from the title of her own autobiography. Themes like these are exactly why a khuti puja announcement from this particular committee tends to get North Kolkata's attention early.
Why Khuti Puja Season Always Circles Back to Rath Yatra
If you've been following Kolkata's puja calendar closely this year, you may already know that a lot of committees quietly treat Rath Yatra — months earlier, in the middle of the monsoon — as the unofficial starting gun for the season, long before any khuti is formally planted. It's an old belief, tied closely to when artisans traditionally begin shaping the framework for the year's idol. We've written in detail about how Rath Yatra connects to the arrival of Durga, and Kashi Bose Lane's own August timeline fits neatly into that broader rhythm — the quiet planning that starts around Rath finally becoming visible, bamboo pole by bamboo pole, in early August.
The Road From Khuti to Kumartuli
Once a kathamo has been worshipped and the frame is officially sanctified, the next chapter of the idol's journey usually runs straight through Kumartuli, Kolkata's centuries-old potters' quarter, where a large share of the city's Durga idols — including many bound for pujas exactly like this one — are shaped by hand over the following weeks. Whether this year's Kashi Bose Lane murti is being built on-site behind the pandal or is currently taking shape inside a Kumartuli workshop is something we'll confirm as the committee shares more details, but the two milestones are rarely far apart on the calendar. If you want to follow that side of the story, our Kumartuli coverage tracks the artisan quarter through the same months, right up to Chokkhu Daan.
What Usually Comes After a Khuti Puja Like This
Going by how Kashi Bose Lane has run things in past years, expect the 9th August ceremony itself to be fairly ritual-focused — priests, the khuti, the kathamo, and a gathering of committee members and neighbourhood regulars rather than a big public reveal. The bigger announcements — this year's theme name, the art director, and early pandal sketches — tend to surface over the following weeks rather than on the ceremony day itself. Bamboo deliveries to the KIT Park ground will pick up soon after, and the framework of the pandal structure should start becoming visible from the road within a few weeks.
We'll be tracking each update as the committee releases it.
Quick Facts: Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity, 89th Year
When is the khuti puja and kathamo puja? Sunday, 9th August 2026, from 9 AM at Kashi Bose Lane KIT Park.
Which year of the puja is this? The 89th year of Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity.
When was Kashi Bose Lane's puja founded? 1937, making it one of North Kolkata's oldest barowari Durga Pujas.
Is the ceremony open to the public? Yes — the committee's own invitation welcomes everyone, with no restrictions.
Where is Kashi Bose Lane located? On Bidhan Sarani, between the Hatibagan and Hedua crossings, a short walk from Girish Park and Sovabazar Sutanuti metro stations.
Where can I follow more khuti puja announcements from other North Kolkata clubs? Our continuously updated Khuti Puja tracker logs every committee's ceremony as it's announced.
Where can I get official updates directly from the committee? Through Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity's official Facebook page.
A Small Note to End On
A single bamboo pole doesn't look like much on its own — not next to the finished pandals this same ground will hold by October. But for a puja that has been doing this since 1937, that pole carries the weight of every year that came before it. On 9th August, Kashi Bose Lane plants it again, and the countdown to Mahalaya quietly, officially begins.
We'll be back with theme details and pandal updates as soon as the committee shares them.
Image Credit: Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity
